Canelo Alvarez isn’t concerning himself with the UFC.
On Saturday, September 14, Alvarez will put his WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight titles on the line against the undefeated Edgar Berlanga inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
That same night, Ultimate Fighting Championship will make its highly anticipated debut at Sphere with two massive world title bouts.
Alvarez’s decision to go head-to-head with UFC 306 has generated some criticism, with Irish megastar Conor McGregor suggesting that the Noche UFC card will overshadow Alvarez’s fight against Berlanga.
Responding to all the trash talk in an interview on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game, Alvarez remains confident that he’ll show-up the UFC in ‘Sin City’ and make a bigger splash on Mexican Independence Day than Dana White.
“It’s just different,” Alvarez said. “Maybe other boxing matches, maybe, but Canelo is different. There are other kind of fights, but Canelo is just different. I don’t care if the UFC is there, when Canelo fights, it’s different” (h/t MMA Fighting).
Canelo Alvarez defends decision to fight edgar berlanga
Aside from choosing to compete against the UFC, Alvarez has also been repeatedly knocked for his choice of opponent. Berlanga, while unbeaten, has only 22 career fights and lacks the notoriety of other potential fights out there for Alvarez, namely WBC interim champion David Benavidez.
Recently, Saudi promoter Turki Alalshikh accused Alvarez of intentionally pricing himself out of a scrap with Terence Crawford. Alvarez responded to the claim with nothing more than a laughing emoji on social media.
— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) August 7, 2024
Alvarez attempted to justify defending his title against Berlanga amid calls for him to take on more intriguing opponents.
“Look, at some point, all the fighters did [what they were told],” Alvarez said. [Oscar] De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather, Julio Cesar Chavez, Mike Tyson, everybody did this. There are stars and superstars and they made the championship, not the championship made them. So it’s way different. I come and I do my career and I fight with [Miguel] Cotto with a clause, and I fight with Mayweather with a clause, and I fight with everybody to build the Canelo Alvarez I am. Right now I can do whatever I want.
“The IBF [says], ‘Hey, you need to fight with this because this.’ Who’s [William] Scull? I never hear about him, just when they say, ‘This is your mandatory.’ I never hear about him. I don’t want to do whatever they want. I want to do what I want. In this position, I can do whatever I want. Because I deserve it, because of all I did. They said, ‘You don’t want to fight [Gennady] Golovkin,’ I fight him. [Erislandy] Lara, I fight him. Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, [Austin] Trout, Mayweather, Cotto, [Dmitry] Bivol, everything. I did everything, and now [Berlanga]. But like I said, I did everything and now I can ask whatever I want and I can do whatever I want.”
Overall, ‘Canelito’ is 61-2 with 39 of his wins coming by way of knockout. After coming up short against Dmitry Bivol in 2022, Alvarez has won four straight.
